Labels

One of the world's funniest men, John Cleese, has recorded a series of radio ads for the Australian industry as part of its ongoing brand campaign, which will go to air nationally next week.

The first of the ads, called ''Celebrity'' features Cleese and Australian comedian, Mark Mitchell discussing why there is no need to use celebrities in radio advertising. The use of humor is an ongoing feature of the radio campaign as is the overall message, which highlights the cost effectiveness of using radio, and audience reach.

The advertisements follow a viral campaign released earlier this week on the internet to radio stations, advertising agencies, advertisers and media companies, which promote the Cleese ads through a game featuring the comedian.

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner said the viral campaign aimed to create awareness and excitement about the ads and was also a fun way to help promote the new campaign and radio generally.

''It is very exciting for the radio industry that John Cheese agreed to do these ads for us while he was here last year as guest speaker at our conference and Awards. His enthusiasm for Australian radio was immense and he was keen to be involved in these ads,'' Ms Warner said.

The radio ads are the latest in a series of well-known commercials Mr Cleese has undertaken including ads for Sony, Callard and Bowser and Schweppes.

Hinch radio programÂ sports commentator Jim Wilson will soon join Channel 7 Brisbane in a part time capacity. Wilson quit 7 after the 2004 Athens Olympic Games after being dumped from being the main sports anchor on 7 nightly news Melbourne. Wilson is now based in Brisbane.

The ABC’s chief said the public broadcaster had not identified a new Brisbane headquarters before a report into breast cancer was released.

Union officials meanwhile remain concerned Brisbane journalists and producers will continue working out of different locations under difficult conditions.

ABC staff abandoned the ageing site at Toowong, in the city’s inner-west, shortly before Christmas last year after an independent panel of experts headed by Professor Bruce Armstrong found the breast cancer rate there was up to 11 times higher than among the general working community.

Twelve women who worked at the riverside Toowong office have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years, including eight who work in the newsroom.

ABC television staff returned to work on Dec 27 at a temporary studio based at the Network Ten premises at Mount Coot-tha while radio staff have begun broadcasting from a specially fitted out van in a Toowong carpark.

ABC managing director Mark Scott defended the response to the cancer cluster and said the organisation had to move swiftly once the cluster was confirmed by Prof Armstrong.

But he admitted the ABC had not had a new building in mind when the report came out.

“If you’re asking me whether in fact we took out a long-term lease in the prospect that this Armstrong report would find what it found, no we didn’t,” Mr Scott told ABC Radio.

“But did we make contingency planning so that we would continue to remain on air and provide local broadcasting and services to the people of Brisbane? Yes we did.”

The ABC would also be moving rapidly to set up its new building, once a suitable site was found.

“We are confident that when we find the right new location for us, that we will be able to fast-track that,” Mr Scott said.

Other ABC sites around the country are also set to be examined with Prof Armstrong to advise if there are any health concerns.

But Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance assistant federal secretary Mark Ryan said a site had to be found as a matter of urgency, despite the tight Brisbane commercial real estate market.

“They need to find sooner, rather than later, a site where they can actually perform their work properly,” Mr Ryan said.

“As far as we are concerned, the current situation cannot continue for any period of time.

“It is just unsustainable from a professional level and a workplace level.”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that the licensee of 2GB Sydney, Harbour Radio Pty Ltd, breached the Commercial Radio Code of Practice by broadcasting material that was likely to vilify people of Lebanese background on the basis of ethnicity.

The breach arose from material included in The Open-Line Show hosted by 2GB presenter, Mr Brian Wilshire, broadcast on 15 December 2005. While ACMA found the material was presented for a purpose in the public interest, being discussion of factors contributing to unrest in southern Sydney, ACMA was not persuaded that the comments were presented reasonably and in good faith for this purpose.

ACMA found 2GB breached clause 1.3(e) of the code. Under this clause, a licensee must not broadcast a program which is likely to incite or perpetuate hatred against or vilify any person or group on the basis of a number of attributes, including ethnicity.

The licensee advised ACMA that it took immediate action after the broadcast. An apology was aired on the day following the broadcast on the Channel 10 news and on 2GB.

The licensee has also advised that during compliance training, which followed the broadcast, all presenters and production staff were briefed 'about the importance of ensuring that in discussing current affairs, criticisms of particular types of conduct is reasonable, but criticisms that are based on persons having any of the attributes listed in code 1.3(e) are not".

ACMA notes the licensee's prompt and prominent public apology and its re-emphasis on compliance training in this case. As such, ACMA considers these actions are a reasonable response to the circumstances identified in the investigation. ACMA will closely monitor the licensee's ongoing performance against this provision of the code.

Mike Brady and Geoff Cox spent many a night together playing in their band Cox, Brady and the Occasional Lady. Nowadays they go head to head on Melbourne radio each Saturday night. For the last few years Coxy (who was famous for playing at the Roxy) has presented Jukebox on 3MP while Mike Brady is the summer host of Saturday nights on 3AW with a talk based program called Mike to Midnight.

Chris Holland is the new breakfast jock at Classic Rock 1O2.5 with a starting date of early Feb. Matt Conlon has now departed the station andÂ in the interim Andy Ingram will cover breakfast.Â Chris comes to Classic Rock from Power FM Bega.

The greater percentage ofÂ the Caralis owned Supernetwork stations have returned to broadcasting the John Laws morning prgram from today. Most will broacast Laws from 9.00am until 11.00am with Leon Delaney being aired from 11.00am until Noon.

With regular 3AWÂ weekendÂ overnight presenter Alan Pearsal currently filling in for the holidaying Keith McGowan weekends are being covered by Nightline producer Simon Owens. Simon connects to the audience, delivering a warm light hearted program. His passion for the medium shines through, something that is missing in many areas of radio in this day and age.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has asked 2HHH FM Ltd, licensee of the community radio service 2HHH in Hornsby, Sydney, to provide a revised policy and procedure for internal conflict resolution that meets the purpose and intent of clause 6.2 of the Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice 2002.

The licensee has been asked to provide the document to ACMA by 2 April 2007.

ACMAâ€™s action follows a finding that 2HHH had breached the code by not having in place a written policy and procedure that outlined mechanisms to facilitate internal conflict resolution. ACMA also found that 2HHH had breached the code by not responding to a complainantâ€™s letter within 60 days of receipt.

As this is the first complaint ACMA has received about 2HHHâ€™s internal conflict resolution and its handling of complaints, ACMA has decided to take no further action at this stage.

ACMA will continue to monitor 2HHHâ€™s performance in relation to complaints handling.

A conglomerate that includes the Irish-owned Independent News and Media (INM) has revived a bid for APN News & Media.

INM already owns a 40 per cent stake in APN and had previously made a bid to buy out the media network, which owns several newspapers and radio stations throughout the Australasian region.

It has now teamed up with private equity firms Providence Equity and The Carlyle Group to offer A$6.05 (Â£2.39) per APN share. The previous bid by INM and Providence Equity, which was rejected by the company, is said to have been valued at A$6.02 (Â£2.38) per share.

APN shares closed on the market at A$6.15 (Â£2.43) a share yesterday.

Commenting on the bid, APN sub-committee chairman Ted Harris said: “The proposal will now be considered by the committee, which will decide whether it is in the best interests of all shareholders, and make a recommendation as quickly as possible.”

If the bid is accepted, the buyout will increase INM’s media reach throughout the Australasian region. APN runs 23 daily and over 100 other publications in Australia and New Zealand. Its radio network includes 12 Australian radio stations and 120 radio stations in New Zealand.

A 19-year-old man has appeared in a Brisbane court charged with the murder and robbery of Brian Heathcote at Nundah on the weekend.

Brian Heathcote, 40, was bashed to death on a Nundah street around 1.30am AEST on Sunday.

He was walking home after leaving a nearby hotel when the alleged attack occurred. His body was discovered on the footpath by two people who were driving by. Police have charged 19-year-old Tyson Alfred Barden with Mr Heathcote’s murder, and also with robbery with violence.

At a brief appearance in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, Barden did not apply for bail and the matter was set for mention in March. Police are still questioning an 18-year-old woman over Mr Heathcote’s death.

Brian was well known to listeners of instore retail radio (Kmart Supa Cheap Auto etc) as well as an in demand voice over man. Vale Brian Heathcote.

Matthew Newton has been sacked from his new radio role as his famous parents vow to stand by him over charges he assaulted actor Brooke Satchwell.

Just hours after Newton’s new girlfriend Gracie Otto, 19, the daughter of legendary performer Barry Otto, drove him from her family’s Lewisham home in Sydney’s inner west, Newton announced Nova radio station had released him from his contract, reportedly worth up to $200,000 a year.

“Over the last two days I have become the subject of intense media and public interest. As the matter of interest relates to a court case, I am not able to freely and openly discuss it,” Newton said in a statement.

“As such, my ability to perform my role as an on-air announcer is greatly limited. Nova and I agree the appropriate course is for them to release me from contractual obligations.

“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Nova for the support and understanding they have shown in releasing me from my contract.”

Nova had signed on Newtown to co-host the Matt and Akmal Show with comedian Akmal Saleh in their prime time drive shift on Friday.

The station suspended his involvement in the broadcasts, which were due to begin yesterday, after allegations were made public at the weekend that Newton had assaulted Satchwell in September and October last year.

News of the sacking came as a resident of the street where Newton lived with Satchwell revealed details of several late night screaming sessions. Describing Newton’s behaviour as “atrocious,” the resident told how he helped Satchwell move out of the former couple’s Rozelle home.

The Oxford St resident, who refused to give his name, said he had heard Newton screaming abuse on several occasions before Satchwell, who was well liked in the street, moved out.

“She has always been very polite and extremely friendly,” he said.

“Generally speaking he was just a bad neighbour. It would be screaming at night.”

Meanwhile Bert Newton’s agent and friend Glenn Wheatley described the Newton family as extremely close and said Matthew’s parents were standing by their son.

Mr Wheatley, who has spoken with Bert Newton since news of the assault charges became public on the weekend, said he believed Bert and Patti may have previously been aware of the charges.

“How much they knew before hand, I’m not sure … my feeling is it’s come as a bit of a shock,” Mr Wheatley said.

“They are very positive under the circumstances … the family is very, close knit and they are going to be absolutely together for him (Matthew).

“Bert has asked that I explain to everybody that, because it’s a family matter, they are not going to be making a comment at the moment.”

Mr Wheatley said a recording and singing career he was developing with Matthew Newton would go ahead.

“He is an extremely talented singer, he is a very gifted performer,” he said.

Newton is due to appear at Balmain Local Court today.

He faces four charges, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He has pleaded not guilty.

DMG Radio Australia’s slow birth of its Vega FM brand continues with the launch of another outdoor campaign in Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydney’s Vega 95.3FM and Melbourne’s Vega 91.5FM are now being promoted with the campaign line “Vega variety 70s, 80s and the best new songs”.It is the first push in what is expected to be an intense rush of marketing for Australia’s FM stations in the first months of 2007.

Austereo’s youth stations, primarily 2DAY and Fox, gained a march on their competitors in early 2006 with expensive early campaigns. The network held and consolidated its FM ratings lead after that bright start.

For DMG’s baby-boomer stations, the story is a little different, with both stations still struggling for recognition after high-profile launches in 2005. Both Vegas remained beside Triple J at the bottom of the ratings table, although the last survey of 2006 showed small signs of growth and encouraging cumulative audiences.

“The next step in our marketing campaign, the most recent of which was communicating the message of ‘Vega variety’, is taking that one step further and further describing the playlist,” said Jane Earnshaw, promotions and marketing director for Vega 95.3FM and Vega 91.5FM.

“It’s not a tinkering as such; it’s looking at the playlist now and what listeners are saying they want from it.”

The campaign, designed in-house, will feature on billboards in both cities and bus advertising in Sydney.

DMG’s $160 million gamble on the new network hasn’t replicated the success of its stablemate Nova. After launching with big personalities, including Wendy Harmer, Tony Squires and ABC recruit Angela Catterns, the Vega stations have pared back the talk content in favour of music.

“It’s no secret that initially the (marketing) concept was too complex, which was surprising for everybody because it was so well researched,” Ms Earnshaw admitted.

“It’s always hard when researching a new station because you’re asking about the incumbents and what they don’t like about them and also asking about something that doesn’t exist yet. But the (audience) behaviour just didn’t match the insights.”

A 28-year-old woman has died of water intoxication after taking part in a Californian radio station’s water drinking contest.She was in the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” competition trying to win a Nintendo Wii video game system.

Assistant Sacramento County Coroner Ed Smith said today a preliminary investigation found evidence “consistent with a water intoxication death”.Jennifer Strange’s mother found her daughter’s body at her home yesterday in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, California, after Strange called her supervisor at her job to say she was heading home in terrible pain.

“She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad,” said Laura Rios, one of Strange’s co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento.

“She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her.”

Earlier yesterday Strange took part in a contest at radio station KDND 107.9 in which participants competed to see how much water they could drink without going to the toilet.

Initially, contestants were handed 220mL bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.

“They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy,” said fellow contestant James Year of Woodland, California.

“They told us if you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t put your health at risk.”

Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles.

“My bladder couldn’t handle it anymore,” he added.

After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.

“I was talking to her and she was a nice lady,” Ybarra said. “She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for kids.”

John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station’s owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange’s death.

“We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred,” he said.

Matthew Newton has been dropped from the Nova drive program prior to even starting on air. Well they say a week is a longtime in radio but this one takes the cake! In light of the current controversy surrounding Matthew Newton and a domestic relationship charge over his head Nova GM Sam Thompson today has suspended Newton’s debut as co-host of drive.

As mentioned here first late last week Matthew Newton has joined Nova to present drive in Melbourne and Sydney. Hot on the heels of this announcement comes the news that Newton has been charged in regards to a domestic incident with former longtime girlfriend Brooke Satchwell. The headlines in todays press ran with the following quote.

Longtime producer of the 6PR morning program Simon Beaumont has taken over presenting. Simon who more recently was producing the program for Bob Maumill takes over from Monday morning. The show will now go head to head with the ABC moving back to its original 8.30am start time.

Early this week, (01/09), Howard Stern marked his first year on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. And even though he is still bringing his show to a substantially smaller audience than he had on terrestrial radio, Sternâ€™s magnetism has attracted enough new subscribers to SIRIUS to have earned him $83 million dollars from a stock bonus.

SIRIUS recently reported over 6 million subscribers for its service, putting it in a position to breathe squarely down XM’s neck - which just announced it has 7.5 million subscribers. Considering this gap has substantially narrowed and quickly, Stern has to be considered part of the reason. SIRIUS had 3 million subscribers in December, 2005 and only 1 million in December, 2004. Think what you may about Stern â€“ he has always had admirers and detractors â€“ but, his move to SIRIUS has proven that he can multitask: do his own F.C.C.-less show and program two channels busting over with Stern-approved talent.

“It’s been a great year and the show is better than ever,” said Stern.

“We’ve delivered on the promise of satellite radio; I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want.”Having two dedicated Howard Stern channels makes it possible for SIRIUS to replay The Howard Stern Show all day and night, allowing fans to listen to the show any time. Howard 100 and Howard 101 feature original shows such as The Wrap Up Show, a daily recap of that morningâ€™s Howard Stern Show hosted by producer Gary Dellâ€™Abate and Jon Hein; The Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a controversial and funny afternoon talk show; The Scott Ferrall Show, a nightly talk show hosted by veteran sports radio personality Scott Ferrall; Jackieâ€™s Joke Hunt, a weekly comedy program hosted by former longtime Stern show member Jackie â€œThe Joke Manâ€ Martling; The Riley Martin Show, a weekly show about Martinâ€™s alien experience; Superfan Roundtable, a weekly show featuring Stern â€œsuperfansâ€ and appearances by the Wack Pack, and The Intern Show, on which the college-age interns reveal the behind the scenes details of working on The Howard Stern Show.

At SIRIUS, Stern even has his own news department, the “Howard 100 News Team” which reports on all things “Howard” all-the-time. You might think this is the epitome of ego-driven programming but for Stern fans, it is real news by a news department which does a very professional job - though, often with tongues in cheek.

In addition to The Howard Stern Show, Stern has created original programming for his two channels over the last year, such as The Bitter Half, a radio drama about Stern show wives and girlfriends, written and produced by Sam Simon, one of the original developers of The Simpsons.

Howard Stern and his channels were a hefty financial investment for SIRIUS â€“ beginning with the highly reported $500 million dollar/5-year deal for his services. With the additional $83 million he earned this week one thing is clear: the King of All Media has also proven himself to be a Jack of All Trades when it comes to content and programming.

Metropolitan commercial radio stations generated advertising revenue of $599.6 million in calendar year 2006, according to figures released today by peak industry body Commercial Radio Australia.Â The result was a 1.4 per cent increase compared with the $591.4 million generated in the 2005 calendar year.

â€œWhile there was good growth in Perth and Brisbane, the overall result was weighed down by the Sydney market, which continues to be adversely affected by the weaker New South Wales economy,â€ said chief executive officer Joan Warner.

Perth was the strongest market in 2006, up nearly 7 per cent in the 12 months ending December to $65 million, followed by Brisbane, which grew by 6 per cent to $91.8 million.Â Sydney stations attracted revenue of $216.0 million in 2006, a 5 per cent decline over 2005, while Melbourne was up 5 per cent to $170.2 million and Adelaide was up 6 per cent to $56.6 million.Â The data is compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the five major capital city markets.

Sydney was the only market to decline in the six months ending December 2006, with Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane showing solid growth.

â€œThe industry is also hopeful of securing a significant share of political advertising in 2007 with a state election slated for NSW, and a Federal Election likely before the end of the year,â€ she added.

Despite competition from newer entertainment choices, commercial radio continued to attract loyal audiences in 2006, with over 8.6 million Australians tuning in in metropolitan areas, representing an audience reach of 77 percent.Â The average time spent listening to commercial radio was 17 hours and 57 minutes each week, or two hours and 33 minutes per day.

Former long time 3mp presenter Steve Curtis has moved to Magic 1278. A 36 year veteran in the Radio and Television industry Curtis pulled the pin on MP in November only day’s before the PD and long time Curtis friend Peter Butler also quit.They were quickly followed by MP music director Peter Tarnawski who is now working overseas.

Over the next couple of weeks the pages navigationÂ link will migrate into the categories navigationÂ Â link and archives link all on the right handside. This process has begun with part of the January 2006 items now available via categories and archives.

There are five main categories with plans for at least three more.

Information will cover December 2005 through to December 2006 in the migrating process. This will also allow 99% of items to be found with a keyword search in our search box once migration is completed.

We are back on deck with daily updates and welcome your contribution as we head into 2007.

From next Monday (15 Jan) Channel 7’s Victoria Carthew will present the sport segmentÂ twice each morning, Monday to Friday on 4BC breakfast. Victoria will also become the regular fill in host for holidays etc .

Brisbane ABC staff have threatened further industrial action amid continuing upheaval over the relocation of the national broadcaster’s operations after a cancer scare.Â

The ABC’s ageing site at Toowong, in the city’s inner-west, was abandoned before Christmas after an independent panel of experts found the breast cancer rate there was up to 11 times higher than the general working community.

Twelve women who worked at the riverside Toowong office have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years, eight in the newsroom.

Staff returned to work on December 27 at a temporary studio based at the Ten Network premises at Mount Coot-tha from where radio bulletins resumed on Wednesday.

But that did not stop about 40 angry staff meeting at a hotel in Toowong and passing a vote of no-confidence in the management, condemning it for failing to properly plan for the relocation and calling for more detailed daily updates

About 90 journalists, presenters and producers walked off the job in a snap strike in July over the breast cancer issue and media union state secretary David Waters said there may be further industrial action.

ABC Radio will resume broadcasting from Brisbane on Wednesday after its Queensland headquarters was abandoned due to breast cancer fears. ABC management ordered the closure of the building at inner-west Toowong on December 21 after an independent study found female employees had developed breast cancer at a rate of up to 11 times higher than the general working community.Twelve female employees have contracted breast cancer in the past 11 years, but the cause remains a mystery.On December 27, staff returned to work at a temporary studio based at the Network Ten studios at Mount Coot-tha, while some production staff worked out of Sydney.”We’ve had two presenters and a radio producer in Sydney and a television presenter and occasionally a TV producer down there as well,” ABC Queensland acting editor Don Lange said.ABC Queensland television news presenter Andrew Lofthouse was still in Sydney for the time being.

“Sometime towards the end of February, we are hoping to get him back on site,” Mr Lange said.

Some Brisbane-specific local radio content was also being produced at the ABC’s facilities on the Gold Coast, ABC Queensland manager Chris Wordsworth said.

“That will be the case for another few weeks and then we will be looking at an interim studio and production centre in Brisbane to get us through until the longer term arrangements are in place at the end of March,” he said.

Mr Wordsworth said some male staff were still working at Toowong.

“The broadband internet people are still at Toowong but we are just waiting for the technical fitout to be completed at the ABC newsroom up at Channel Ten.

“But that is not far off.”

Female staff from the broadband department had been redeployed into the publishing side of the online division and were now based at Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Kelvin Grove campus, he said.

Albany Harness Racing Club has introduced a new innovation to lift its profile. At the clubâ€™s first meeting for the new racing season run on Sunday 7th January, the club broadcast its races via its website. With support from Racing and Wagering Western Australia, Albany Harness Racing Club has set up its own internet radio station and will broadcast all its races in full from the course. In between races the club will relay TAB Racing Radio.

The club has taken on this innovation because of the tight scheduling of Racing Radio. The club has owners of horses that live all over the state and when timing overruns occur our clubâ€™s coverage is severely restricted. The fact that some races, or part of some races cannot be heard is of concern to owners and others who particularly want to hear the call, and can affect turnover. This is certainly a first for Western Australia and possibly Australia.

The Albany Harness Racing Club is now also supplying last lap replays for the harness.org.au results page as well as supplying a full audio replay and last lap reply via our own website.

Keep up with whatâ€™s happening in Albany on www.albanyharnessracing.com.au

The newest brand for GMG Radio has been launched by pop and rock legend Rod Stewart. 96.3 Rock Radio is the new name for Q96 and serves nearly one million adults in Paisley and Renfrewshire. The first song played was Revolution by The Beatles.The line-up will see Kieron Elliott on Breakfast, followed by Tom Russell and David “The Captain” Grant. Friday’s schedule sees Donald McLeod on air in the evening. Wild Willie and Ciaran O’Toole join the weekend line-up. The seventies hit band Nazareth joined hundreds of guests and clients as Rod Stewart became the first voice to be heard on the station saying â€œHi, this is Rod Stewart, I canâ€™t tell you how much pleasure it gives me to welcome you to Scotlandâ€™s first Classic Rock station 96.3 Rock Radio, youâ€™re in my heart, youâ€™re in my soul Scotland so letâ€™s rock!â€

The station will showcase a large mix of classic rock hits from the last 40 years, from artists such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Simple Minds, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, The Who and The Rolling Stones.

From launch the station will be supported by a significant marketing campaign of bus backs across the region as well as audio adbikes around Paisley and the prominent shopping areas of Glasgow. Full liveried taxis will also travel around the transmission area for the next twelve months.96.3 Rock Radioâ€™s Managing Director, Billy Anderson said: â€œThis is a very exciting day for GMG as a radio group, not only to be launching a new brand but to be bringing to Scotland its very own classic rock station. We will endeavour to provide an alternative listen whilst encompassing the key local news and information services for our listenersâ€.The station is also available on DAB Digital Radio and online at the new station website.

SIMON Mitchell has no illusions of grandeur about his new gig on radio. “Basically I’ll be filing CDs and cleaning the music office,” he laughs. . . “Making sure any artist starting with A has their CD in the A artist spot.” He’s downplaying it just a tad.He’s just been promoted to assistant music director at the Sunshine Coast radio station Hot 91FM. And as of January 15, he’ll be hosting the night show as well. Not bad for a Triple M street crew driver from Adelaide. Simon and his girlfriend, Zoe Noonan, moved up to Maroochydore in February last year. Simon had lined up a gig he knew a lot about - handing out cans of Coke as a promotional crew member for the station.While he’d always wanted to break into radio down south, the opportunities here didn’t present themselves.

“When I came up here I may have lied a bit about what I’d done at home, and they let me do dawns (the graveyard shift on air) and it went from there,” he laughs.

And when the music director went on holidays over Chrissie he was next in line.

“I push F1 and F2 a lot, that’s pretty much it,” he jokes.

“No, I’m really happy, it’s a nice feather to have in your cap.”

He’s well and truly adapted to the Queensland way of life - getting up at the crack of dawn to go surfing before work. “I couldn’t surf before I got up here,” he says, “and well, I still can’t really, I just paddle about for couple of hours, then come back in.”

Zoe is relief primary teaching along the coast and is also enjoying the seachange (she’s sporting a very impressive tan).

So what’s next for Simon?

“My plan is to stop making as many mistakes,” he laughs, “At the end of the day dead air isn’t a good thing.”

CANWEST Global Communications Corp and investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co have teamed up to bid up to $C2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) for specialty television group Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.With bids for Toronto-based Alliance expected to land next week, CanWest and Goldman had formed a partnership that would see Winnipeg, Manitoba-based CanWest purchase Alliance’s 13 specialty television channels, the Globe and Mail newspaper said, citing unnamed banking and media sources.CanWest, Canada’s biggest media company, was widely believed to be interested in Alliance and analysts said it would likely look at buying the company when Alliance went on the block late last month.However, at least one analyst has suggested that CanWest may look at Alliance only if it can unload its Channel 10 tV assets in Australia.CanWest said last month that it is exploring such a sale, though it has not announced a deal.Analysts have also said that if the company was to exit Australia, it would also likely sell its smaller presence in New Zealand, where it has mostly radio holdings.

AN emotional Johnny Young has broken his silence to angrily deny gossip magazine allegations that he condoned an under-age affair by pop star Debra Byrne when she was appearing on his Young Talent Time television series.New Idea alleged in a cover story on October 24 that the former host of the long-running television program allowed Byrne to participate in under-age sex with a 24-year-old crew member, and to get involved with alcohol and drugs.Young, who returns to work tomorrow as host of Perth radio station 6IX’s breakfast program, says he has already spent $20,000 on legal advice and is likely to sue New Idea over the allegations if enrolment numbers in February are down at his Johnny Young Talent Schools around the country.Speaking at his stylish Mt Pleasant apartment this week, surrounded by Logie awards and pictures of his family, Young spoke emotionally about the hurt the magazine article had caused him.

He said he had no warning that the article, which condemned him for doing nothing when an allegedly 12-year-old Byrne was supposedly having an affair with a Young Talent Time boom operator, was about to be published.

The television series, which fostered the careers of Kylie Minogue and Jane Scali, ran from 1971 to 1989.

Young has written to Kerry Stokes, whose company operates New Idea, to ask for a retraction.In the letter Young says: “The articles have hurt and damaged me enormously.

“The first one effectively accuses me of sexually abusing Debra Byrne when she was a child.

“The second article backs away from this, but both articles suggest that I knew she was having a sexual relationship when she was 12 or 13 with a Young Talent Time staff member and I did nothing to stop it.

“The clear suggestion is that I turned a blind eye to pedophilia. This is terribly damaging to me and has the capacity to completely destroy my reputation and career.'’

Young goes on in the letter to categorically deny the allegations made in the magazine article and points out that the allegations don’t agree with the facts in Byrne’s tell-all autobiography Not Quite Ripe, which was released in October.

Young was alerted to the New Idea story, which ran under the banner heading “Sex, drugs and Young Talent Time'’, by his daughter.

“I went and got a copy of New Idea and nearly fell off my chair,'’ Young said this week.

“What really shocked me though, when I read the story, was that there were direct quotes from Debra.

“There were three main ones: one that she started on Young Talent Time when she was 12; secondly that she was with somebody who worked on the program and that I should have known about it, and thirdly, that she was introduced to drugs and alcohol on Young Talent Time.'’Young said none of these points was true.

“She wasn’t 12 years old when she started the relationship with the guy. She says so in the book.

“She had another boyfriend when Young Talent Time started and she was 14 when Young Talent Time started.

“When she had this relationship, which she describes in the book, with this guy called Michael, she was nearly 16.

“I was in the process of having my own baby girl, Anna, but according to (choreographer) Maggie Burns, who had more to do with them than anybody else, she was a few months away from being 16 years old.'’

Young said the boom operator was replaced on Young Talent Time because a producer thought he was getting too friendly with Byrne and that Byrne had made it clear in her book that she had approval for the relationship from her parents.

Young insists he knew nothing about the relationship.

His first reaction to the magazine story was one of absolute anger and then fear about what the story would do to the careers of the people running his talent schools and what parents, who entrust their children into the care of the teachers at those schools, would think.

He was concerned about embarrassment to his family.

Young said that now, having read Byrne’s book, he had been able to put her comments into context.

“It’s a very sad book. Deb’s had some incredible tragedy in her younger life, being molested by her grandfather, the way her father treated her and her mother’s attitudes are horrific stuff for a youngster, but nothing to do with Young Talent Time,'’ he said.

Young said it was clear that Byrne didn’t like him.

“But she doesn’t make it clear in the book why she doesn’t like me,'’ he said.

“When asked by Kerri-Anne Kennerley on her television program `What’s your problem with Johnny Young?’, her answer was simply because `he’s a businessman’.

“She was also pretty heavy about the fact that I was critical of her smoking marijuana.

“Now, I smoked some marijuana in the ’60s, too, but if you’re 19, as Debra was when she started smoking marijuana and you’re going to England to make records with Cliff Richard, it’s not a very smart idea to have any kind of drugs in your life when you are dealing with people in life who have that kind of standard.

“We had a big argument about that.'’

Young says part of his falling out with Byrne was over songs he chose for her to record.

“I picked He’s A Rebel and in the book she says she hated it, but it was a No.1 hit record _ you can’t do better than that in this business.

“Secondly, with Ross Burton I produced her album, which was also a big hit, and there were two more hits off that album.

“As a consequence of that and the work she did on Young Talent Time, she got offered the opportunity to go to England and make records with Cliff Richard and to be managed by Olivia Newton-John’s management company, all organised by Kevin Lewis, who was our boss.

“It was an opportunity to die for.'’

Young said he was always conscious of a duty of care to the children working on Young Talent Time.

Other than Byrne, who was often dropped home by Maggie Burns because the young singer’s parents often chose not to pick her up, the children who performed on the program were picked up and dropped off by their parents.

“We had security people everywhere and we were very aware we were dealing with children,'’ Young said.

“Our duty of care was 100 per cent when those children were in our care, but those children were not in our care 24 hours a day.

“They were in our care for three to four hours a day after school and on Saturdays they were delivered by their parents to Channel 10 and they rehearsed and at 6.30pm we would do the show.'’

Since the New Idea article appeared, Young has received a number of letters of support from former Young Talent Time members.

Young said he believed the timing was now right for him to go public with his side of the story, though his daughters had told him to ignore the story and to rise above it.

He had also spent the last couple of months at end-of-year concerts and had been sounding out a number of people.

“I was very moved by the way people responded to me, particularly at a show we did on the Gold Coast, where we had 15,000 people offer their support,'’ he said.

“But I felt I wanted to do this story to point out the facts.

“I wanted to do one story where I could say `this is what’s happened to me without any care for 20 years of hard work - probably the most important thing I’ve done in my career - tarnished with lies’.

“Whether I sue them or not will be a business decision I’ll have to make depending on whether the kids re-enrol in the school and how my ratings go on the radio because people may not want to listen to me any more if they believe that crap.

“Somewhere along the line I had to do something.

“The feeling I have for Deb is just extreme sadness.

“The people like John Paul Young and others she crucifies in her book is not going to do her a lot of good for work in the future.'’Â Â

Former Adelaide radio talk king Jeremey Cordeaux has a concept for a new program he is interested in talking to the Television networks about. The program has a working title of ‘15 Minutes of Fame’ and Cordeaux feels he is sitting on a winner. He feels the concept could easily convert from TV to radio and possibly into a magazine. Using archival footage on people who graced us withÂ 15 minutes in the spotlight it would be pitted against current information or footage on where life has taken them since their moment of glory.

Megan Gale and current Bachelor of the Year Andy Lee have fuelled rumours they are an item after taking a week’s holiday together in the Victorian seaside town of Portsea.The pair were linked romantically several times during the Spring Racing Carnival, but neither would confirm the relationship then.Lee, 25, a Melbourne radio personality, confirmed the two had been relaxing at the glamorous beachside hotspot.But the Fox FM funnyman remained coy when asked yesterday about the nature of his relationship with the stylish 31 year-old model and Channel Nine star.“Look, we’re close friends and we’ve been seeing a bit of each other,” Lee said.“We were down at Portsea for a little bit. She was visiting me for a little while.“There’s nothing much more to say really,” he said, before adding, “It must be more of a situation where models are sponsoring fat, lazy Australians as some kind of Christmas charity appeal â€“ and I was lucky enough to get Megan as my sponsor.”Lee said he and Gale had known each other for a few years. Gale’s romantic life has been scrutinised in recent years after the break up of her four-year relationship with Italian model Marzio Canevarolo.Last October she said “the only person I’m interested in dating right now is me, and getting to know who I am”.Gale explained she was looking forward to some “me time

Rather than turkey and cranberry, itâ€™s been a Christmas of trucks and cabling for technical staff at 612 ABC Brisbane, whoâ€™ve been moving the station from the Toowong site to temporary premises at ABC Coast FM at Mermaid Beach.

All staff at the ABC at Toowong are in the process of moving offsite, after an investigation into incidences of breast cancer among ABC staff found that there is a higher instance of breast cancer than normal at the Toowong site.

612 ABC Brisbane has temporarily moved to ABC Coast FM offices on the Gold Coast to maintain local summer programming â€“ a move overseen by Local Radio Queensland Operations Coordinator (technical whiz), Robert â€˜Aussie Bobâ€™ Apolloni.

Itâ€™s been a big job for Aussie and other technical staff. â€œItâ€™s a huge task to move not only staffing, but also the technical part of it â€“ itâ€™s a massive undertaking,â€ he confirms. â€œThereâ€™s a lot of things in a radio station that people donâ€™t realise need to be moved, just so staff can operate equipment properly.

Itâ€™s a huge task to move not only staffing, but also the technical part of it â€“ itâ€™s a massive undertakingÂ

â€œThe idea is that we want to move computers and phones, which is your basic equipment,â€ Aussie explains. â€œThen weâ€™ll bring out the broadcast equipment, our editing system, our phone and computer networks, and then of course, our console, which allows us to use our microphones, our CD players and all the additional equipment we need to make a radio program.â€

Queenslandâ€™s Local Radio Manager, Mike McGowan, is coordinating the entire radio divisionâ€™s move from the Toowong site, and he agrees that the task is massive. â€œItâ€™s absolutely huge,â€ he says. â€œWeâ€™re talking about all of radio: Radio National, Triple J, NewsRadio, Rural, Sport, as well as Local Radio. That whole operation exists on connectivity and electronic equipment and to move all of it essentially three times - which is what weâ€™re looking at at the moment - is just a huge logistical job, and itâ€™s not just radio, itâ€™s the whole of the ABC here.â€

So far, 612â€™s move to the Gold Coast has only involved the Summer Breakfast program: presenter Tony Johnston and producer Anne Debert. According to Anne, thanks to the oft-promoted ABC shopping bags, the move itself was stress free. â€œWeâ€™ve brought our little ABC shopping bags and weâ€™ve got one bag full of prizes and Iâ€™ve got my contact book, got my tray, and the people here have been really lovely, really accommodating,â€ she smiles.

â€œA few little things behind the scenes havenâ€™t been a smooth as weâ€™re used to; for instance, in our production area, the producers [for 612 and ABC Coast FM] share a desk, so sometimes we hear their program, sometimes we hear our program, so sometimes itâ€™s a bit of a battle of the tuners â€“ and the volume knobs! But really itâ€™s all working out very well â€“ the coffee machineâ€™s here and the fridge!â€

According to Aussie, nothingâ€™s gone seriously wrong â€“ yet. For Anne, the technical side of the operation has gone reasonably smoothly. â€œFor me, the biggest technical hitch is printing things,â€ she admits with a wry smile.

â€œNew yearâ€™s day, I couldnâ€™t get anything to print, it was 3.30 or 4 in the morning. I felt like the person in the Castle when he was on the photocopy machine â€“ there were a few expletives, but thatâ€™s really been the biggest hiccup. Our technical people have done a great job.â€

An ABC Radio broadcast bus and a site hut have also been moved to the Gold Coast site to provide extra office space and recording facilities for other 612 staff as they return from holidays.

Producer Anne is steadily adjusting to the idea of leaving the Toowong site. â€œInitially, I was sad,â€ she reflects. â€œIt was my 20th year at the end of last year, and so I was a bit sad about it, but thatâ€™s probably my personality â€“ I find change a little bit difficult,â€ she laughs.

â€œI was sad as well because it meant weâ€™ll be splitting up. I know weâ€™ll all be together again one dayâ€¦ but now Iâ€™m loving being in this office and being one block from the beach. And parking! Parking is just a dream around here compared to Toowong.â€

Anneâ€™s not the only employee whoâ€™s feeling a bit reflective about her time in the Toowong office. â€œThose of us who have been at the site for a long time were probably hoping that, sometime over the next 4-5 years, we would relocate to a more modern facility,â€ comments Mike McGowan.

weâ€™re looking at a number of university campuses and other properties that have been put before us as optionsÂ

â€œUnfortunately though, this move has kind of just descended upon us and a lot of employees who have been with us a long time are not leaving under their own terms; I guess thatâ€™s what it is… so there is a bit of an emotional attachment to the move in that sense, I suppose.â€

612 has two more moves in the near future â€“ one of which is very close to the current site. â€œWeâ€™ve got a property in Lissner Street in Toowong for the Radio Division and itâ€™s a workable property in the sense of getting us and keeping us on the air, so weâ€™re able to operate from there until a permanent home is found,â€ says Mike.

â€œIn the meantime, the Gold Coast operation has a finite timeline â€“ we need to wrap that up by the end of the month - and at this stage, weâ€™re looking at a number of university campuses and other properties that have been put before us as options to move the radio division there while the Lissner Street property is being properly fitted out.â€

As we have done in the past every week we randomly pickÂ a station of the week. This week it is Perth’s 96FM. We think the 96FM website is pretty flash, no pun intended. Click the logo and drop by 96FM.

3NE’s Paul Konik will talk with Wayne Mac, author of Don’t Touch That Dial, this Friday morning on at around 7.45am. If you have not yet landed your own copy of the book then drop by Wayne’s website where you can purchase a copy online www.waynemac.com

2DAY FM APD Jason Walkerden is moving to the UK. Jason has landed aÂ program director role withÂ GCAP Network stations Ocean FM & Power FM based in Southhampton. Well done Jason who has come a long way from his days back West.

Adelaide Talk station FiveaaÂ gave breakfast a different spin this week withÂ regularÂ funster Jon Blake and PD Nic Nolan getting behind the mic together for a couple of hours. Other surprises at Fiveaa and great to hear, Adrian Middeldorp in the chair albeit for a one off shift.

Village Roadshow says this year’s profits will likely be higher than previously expected.The company which distributes film, owns a majority stake of radio group Austereo, and operates theme parks across the country now sees full year profit coming in at $36 million.The new estimate is $9 million higher than an earlier forecast of $27 million.The company attributes the improved profit outlook to an accounting change, which has effectively reduced its losses on interest rate derivatives held by the company.

Shares of Village Roadshow fell 4 cents to finish at $3.06 on Wednesday

Brisbane’s 882 4BH yesterday clocked up 75 years of broadcasting. The AM station now part of the Southern Cross stable first went to air on January 2 1932. The station was originally owned by J B Chandler, of Chandler Stores. Chandler had launched 4BC two years earlier in 1930 so it is now rather fitting that some 75 years latter the two are sister stations.

TALK about Opportunity. Three years after releasing his major-label debut, former rugby player turned smouldering troubadour Pete Murray has produced the most played song on Australian radio in 2006.Opportunity, the third single from Murray’s second album, See The Sun, beat hits from Nickelback, Santana and James Blunt to take the title.Radio airplay helps drive sales and Murray’s continued success on commercial radio has helped him sell more than 700,000 copies of his first two albums in Australia.

Australian acts held half the slots in the year’s airplay top 10.

Shannon Noll had two tracks and Eskimo Joe and Youth Group one each. Noll also had a third track, Lift, at No. 22.

Murray had three other tracks in the top 100 for the year: Better Days at 19, Class A at 70 and George’s Helper at 90.

The singer-songwriter spent much of 2006 touring Europe, Russia and Britain. He recently returned from a British tour with Richard Ashcroft, former frontman of the Verve.

Of the top 100 acts on Australian radio, 34 were by local performers.

Some of the international acts to receive a stamp of approval from Australian radio programmers were English rockers Coldplay, Californian quartet the Red Hot Chili Peppers, British indie-rockers Snow Patrol, American popster Pink and former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.

The 2005 Australian Idol winner, Kate DeAraugo, could only muster a slot at No. 55.

DeAraugo, Noll and former contestant Ricki-Lee (who came in at 92 with Sunshine) were the only former Idol-related performers to make the chart.

Bernard Fanning’s solo material featured prominently. The ARIA award-winning Powderfinger frontman scored, with Wish You Well and Songbird coming in at 13 and 16 respectively.

Precocious Queensland twins the Veronicas had three entries on the chart, as did New Zealand trio Evermore, now based in Sydney.

There were some surprises. Melbourne rockers Jet managed only a disappointing No. 64 with their comeback single Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Robbie Williams had three entries in the upper levels of the chart, yet all came from his 2005 album Intensive Care, not last year’s album, Rudebox.

Former Triple MÂ and Gold 1043 announcer Ewan J Dixon is currently looking to take that next step in his career. “Ewan J Dixon, 27 year veteranÂ currently in Sydney. Seeking a new radio challenge, contact on 0417 143426 or (02) 9673 4163 or email metromedia@mail.com”

Bruno Bouchet commences next week with the producing team at ARN Brisbane. . He will be assisting Chris Hague to produce the 973FM breakfast show. Bruno will also work on producing Laurel, Gary & Mark’s breakfast show at Classic Hits 4KQ.Â Brenden Wood has departed for SydneyÂ to produce Sammy Power’s breakfast show atÂ sister station, MIX 106.5.

One of the world's funniest men, John Cleese, has recorded a series of radio ads for the Australian industry as part of its ongoing brand campaign, which will go to air nationally next week.

The first of the ads, called ''Celebrity'' features Cleese and Australian comedian, Mark Mitchell discussing why there is no need to use celebrities in radio advertising. The use of humor is an ongoing feature of the radio campaign as is the overall message, which highlights the cost effectiveness of using radio, and audience reach.

The advertisements follow a viral campaign released earlier this week on the internet to radio stations, advertising agencies, advertisers and media companies, which promote the Cleese ads through a game featuring the comedian.

Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner said the viral campaign aimed to create awareness and excitement about the ads and was also a fun way to help promote the new campaign and radio generally.

''It is very exciting for the radio industry that John Cheese agreed to do these ads for us while he was here last year as guest speaker at our conference and Awards. His enthusiasm for Australian radio was immense and he was keen to be involved in these ads,'' Ms Warner said.

The radio ads are the latest in a series of well-known commercials Mr Cleese has undertaken including ads for Sony, Callard and Bowser and Schweppes.

Hinch radio programÂ sports commentator Jim Wilson will soon join Channel 7 Brisbane in a part time capacity. Wilson quit 7 after the 2004 Athens Olympic Games after being dumped from being the main sports anchor on 7 nightly news Melbourne. Wilson is now based in Brisbane.

The ABC’s chief said the public broadcaster had not identified a new Brisbane headquarters before a report into breast cancer was released.

Union officials meanwhile remain concerned Brisbane journalists and producers will continue working out of different locations under difficult conditions.

ABC staff abandoned the ageing site at Toowong, in the city’s inner-west, shortly before Christmas last year after an independent panel of experts headed by Professor Bruce Armstrong found the breast cancer rate there was up to 11 times higher than among the general working community.

Twelve women who worked at the riverside Toowong office have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years, including eight who work in the newsroom.

ABC television staff returned to work on Dec 27 at a temporary studio based at the Network Ten premises at Mount Coot-tha while radio staff have begun broadcasting from a specially fitted out van in a Toowong carpark.

ABC managing director Mark Scott defended the response to the cancer cluster and said the organisation had to move swiftly once the cluster was confirmed by Prof Armstrong.

But he admitted the ABC had not had a new building in mind when the report came out.

“If you’re asking me whether in fact we took out a long-term lease in the prospect that this Armstrong report would find what it found, no we didn’t,” Mr Scott told ABC Radio.

“But did we make contingency planning so that we would continue to remain on air and provide local broadcasting and services to the people of Brisbane? Yes we did.”

The ABC would also be moving rapidly to set up its new building, once a suitable site was found.

“We are confident that when we find the right new location for us, that we will be able to fast-track that,” Mr Scott said.

Other ABC sites around the country are also set to be examined with Prof Armstrong to advise if there are any health concerns.

But Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance assistant federal secretary Mark Ryan said a site had to be found as a matter of urgency, despite the tight Brisbane commercial real estate market.

“They need to find sooner, rather than later, a site where they can actually perform their work properly,” Mr Ryan said.

“As far as we are concerned, the current situation cannot continue for any period of time.

“It is just unsustainable from a professional level and a workplace level.”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that the licensee of 2GB Sydney, Harbour Radio Pty Ltd, breached the Commercial Radio Code of Practice by broadcasting material that was likely to vilify people of Lebanese background on the basis of ethnicity.

The breach arose from material included in The Open-Line Show hosted by 2GB presenter, Mr Brian Wilshire, broadcast on 15 December 2005. While ACMA found the material was presented for a purpose in the public interest, being discussion of factors contributing to unrest in southern Sydney, ACMA was not persuaded that the comments were presented reasonably and in good faith for this purpose.

ACMA found 2GB breached clause 1.3(e) of the code. Under this clause, a licensee must not broadcast a program which is likely to incite or perpetuate hatred against or vilify any person or group on the basis of a number of attributes, including ethnicity.

The licensee advised ACMA that it took immediate action after the broadcast. An apology was aired on the day following the broadcast on the Channel 10 news and on 2GB.

The licensee has also advised that during compliance training, which followed the broadcast, all presenters and production staff were briefed 'about the importance of ensuring that in discussing current affairs, criticisms of particular types of conduct is reasonable, but criticisms that are based on persons having any of the attributes listed in code 1.3(e) are not".

ACMA notes the licensee's prompt and prominent public apology and its re-emphasis on compliance training in this case. As such, ACMA considers these actions are a reasonable response to the circumstances identified in the investigation. ACMA will closely monitor the licensee's ongoing performance against this provision of the code.

Mike Brady and Geoff Cox spent many a night together playing in their band Cox, Brady and the Occasional Lady. Nowadays they go head to head on Melbourne radio each Saturday night. For the last few years Coxy (who was famous for playing at the Roxy) has presented Jukebox on 3MP while Mike Brady is the summer host of Saturday nights on 3AW with a talk based program called Mike to Midnight.

Chris Holland is the new breakfast jock at Classic Rock 1O2.5 with a starting date of early Feb. Matt Conlon has now departed the station andÂ in the interim Andy Ingram will cover breakfast.Â Chris comes to Classic Rock from Power FM Bega.

The greater percentage ofÂ the Caralis owned Supernetwork stations have returned to broadcasting the John Laws morning prgram from today. Most will broacast Laws from 9.00am until 11.00am with Leon Delaney being aired from 11.00am until Noon.

With regular 3AWÂ weekendÂ overnight presenter Alan Pearsal currently filling in for the holidaying Keith McGowan weekends are being covered by Nightline producer Simon Owens. Simon connects to the audience, delivering a warm light hearted program. His passion for the medium shines through, something that is missing in many areas of radio in this day and age.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has asked 2HHH FM Ltd, licensee of the community radio service 2HHH in Hornsby, Sydney, to provide a revised policy and procedure for internal conflict resolution that meets the purpose and intent of clause 6.2 of the Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice 2002.

The licensee has been asked to provide the document to ACMA by 2 April 2007.

ACMAâ€™s action follows a finding that 2HHH had breached the code by not having in place a written policy and procedure that outlined mechanisms to facilitate internal conflict resolution. ACMA also found that 2HHH had breached the code by not responding to a complainantâ€™s letter within 60 days of receipt.

As this is the first complaint ACMA has received about 2HHHâ€™s internal conflict resolution and its handling of complaints, ACMA has decided to take no further action at this stage.

ACMA will continue to monitor 2HHHâ€™s performance in relation to complaints handling.

A conglomerate that includes the Irish-owned Independent News and Media (INM) has revived a bid for APN News & Media.

INM already owns a 40 per cent stake in APN and had previously made a bid to buy out the media network, which owns several newspapers and radio stations throughout the Australasian region.

It has now teamed up with private equity firms Providence Equity and The Carlyle Group to offer A$6.05 (Â£2.39) per APN share. The previous bid by INM and Providence Equity, which was rejected by the company, is said to have been valued at A$6.02 (Â£2.38) per share.

APN shares closed on the market at A$6.15 (Â£2.43) a share yesterday.

Commenting on the bid, APN sub-committee chairman Ted Harris said: “The proposal will now be considered by the committee, which will decide whether it is in the best interests of all shareholders, and make a recommendation as quickly as possible.”

If the bid is accepted, the buyout will increase INM’s media reach throughout the Australasian region. APN runs 23 daily and over 100 other publications in Australia and New Zealand. Its radio network includes 12 Australian radio stations and 120 radio stations in New Zealand.

A 19-year-old man has appeared in a Brisbane court charged with the murder and robbery of Brian Heathcote at Nundah on the weekend.

Brian Heathcote, 40, was bashed to death on a Nundah street around 1.30am AEST on Sunday.

He was walking home after leaving a nearby hotel when the alleged attack occurred. His body was discovered on the footpath by two people who were driving by. Police have charged 19-year-old Tyson Alfred Barden with Mr Heathcote’s murder, and also with robbery with violence.

At a brief appearance in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, Barden did not apply for bail and the matter was set for mention in March. Police are still questioning an 18-year-old woman over Mr Heathcote’s death.

Brian was well known to listeners of instore retail radio (Kmart Supa Cheap Auto etc) as well as an in demand voice over man. Vale Brian Heathcote.

Matthew Newton has been sacked from his new radio role as his famous parents vow to stand by him over charges he assaulted actor Brooke Satchwell.

Just hours after Newton’s new girlfriend Gracie Otto, 19, the daughter of legendary performer Barry Otto, drove him from her family’s Lewisham home in Sydney’s inner west, Newton announced Nova radio station had released him from his contract, reportedly worth up to $200,000 a year.

“Over the last two days I have become the subject of intense media and public interest. As the matter of interest relates to a court case, I am not able to freely and openly discuss it,” Newton said in a statement.

“As such, my ability to perform my role as an on-air announcer is greatly limited. Nova and I agree the appropriate course is for them to release me from contractual obligations.

“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Nova for the support and understanding they have shown in releasing me from my contract.”

Nova had signed on Newtown to co-host the Matt and Akmal Show with comedian Akmal Saleh in their prime time drive shift on Friday.

The station suspended his involvement in the broadcasts, which were due to begin yesterday, after allegations were made public at the weekend that Newton had assaulted Satchwell in September and October last year.

News of the sacking came as a resident of the street where Newton lived with Satchwell revealed details of several late night screaming sessions. Describing Newton’s behaviour as “atrocious,” the resident told how he helped Satchwell move out of the former couple’s Rozelle home.

The Oxford St resident, who refused to give his name, said he had heard Newton screaming abuse on several occasions before Satchwell, who was well liked in the street, moved out.

“She has always been very polite and extremely friendly,” he said.

“Generally speaking he was just a bad neighbour. It would be screaming at night.”

Meanwhile Bert Newton’s agent and friend Glenn Wheatley described the Newton family as extremely close and said Matthew’s parents were standing by their son.

Mr Wheatley, who has spoken with Bert Newton since news of the assault charges became public on the weekend, said he believed Bert and Patti may have previously been aware of the charges.

“How much they knew before hand, I’m not sure … my feeling is it’s come as a bit of a shock,” Mr Wheatley said.

“They are very positive under the circumstances … the family is very, close knit and they are going to be absolutely together for him (Matthew).

“Bert has asked that I explain to everybody that, because it’s a family matter, they are not going to be making a comment at the moment.”

Mr Wheatley said a recording and singing career he was developing with Matthew Newton would go ahead.

“He is an extremely talented singer, he is a very gifted performer,” he said.

Newton is due to appear at Balmain Local Court today.

He faces four charges, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He has pleaded not guilty.

DMG Radio Australia’s slow birth of its Vega FM brand continues with the launch of another outdoor campaign in Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydney’s Vega 95.3FM and Melbourne’s Vega 91.5FM are now being promoted with the campaign line “Vega variety 70s, 80s and the best new songs”.It is the first push in what is expected to be an intense rush of marketing for Australia’s FM stations in the first months of 2007.

Austereo’s youth stations, primarily 2DAY and Fox, gained a march on their competitors in early 2006 with expensive early campaigns. The network held and consolidated its FM ratings lead after that bright start.

For DMG’s baby-boomer stations, the story is a little different, with both stations still struggling for recognition after high-profile launches in 2005. Both Vegas remained beside Triple J at the bottom of the ratings table, although the last survey of 2006 showed small signs of growth and encouraging cumulative audiences.

“The next step in our marketing campaign, the most recent of which was communicating the message of ‘Vega variety’, is taking that one step further and further describing the playlist,” said Jane Earnshaw, promotions and marketing director for Vega 95.3FM and Vega 91.5FM.

“It’s not a tinkering as such; it’s looking at the playlist now and what listeners are saying they want from it.”

The campaign, designed in-house, will feature on billboards in both cities and bus advertising in Sydney.

DMG’s $160 million gamble on the new network hasn’t replicated the success of its stablemate Nova. After launching with big personalities, including Wendy Harmer, Tony Squires and ABC recruit Angela Catterns, the Vega stations have pared back the talk content in favour of music.

“It’s no secret that initially the (marketing) concept was too complex, which was surprising for everybody because it was so well researched,” Ms Earnshaw admitted.

“It’s always hard when researching a new station because you’re asking about the incumbents and what they don’t like about them and also asking about something that doesn’t exist yet. But the (audience) behaviour just didn’t match the insights.”

A 28-year-old woman has died of water intoxication after taking part in a Californian radio station’s water drinking contest.She was in the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” competition trying to win a Nintendo Wii video game system.

Assistant Sacramento County Coroner Ed Smith said today a preliminary investigation found evidence “consistent with a water intoxication death”.Jennifer Strange’s mother found her daughter’s body at her home yesterday in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, California, after Strange called her supervisor at her job to say she was heading home in terrible pain.

“She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad,” said Laura Rios, one of Strange’s co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento.

“She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her.”

Earlier yesterday Strange took part in a contest at radio station KDND 107.9 in which participants competed to see how much water they could drink without going to the toilet.

Initially, contestants were handed 220mL bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.

“They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy,” said fellow contestant James Year of Woodland, California.

“They told us if you don’t feel like you can do this, don’t put your health at risk.”

Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles.

“My bladder couldn’t handle it anymore,” he added.

After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.

“I was talking to her and she was a nice lady,” Ybarra said. “She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for kids.”

John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station’s owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange’s death.

“We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred,” he said.

Matthew Newton has been dropped from the Nova drive program prior to even starting on air. Well they say a week is a longtime in radio but this one takes the cake! In light of the current controversy surrounding Matthew Newton and a domestic relationship charge over his head Nova GM Sam Thompson today has suspended Newton’s debut as co-host of drive.

As mentioned here first late last week Matthew Newton has joined Nova to present drive in Melbourne and Sydney. Hot on the heels of this announcement comes the news that Newton has been charged in regards to a domestic incident with former longtime girlfriend Brooke Satchwell. The headlines in todays press ran with the following quote.

Longtime producer of the 6PR morning program Simon Beaumont has taken over presenting. Simon who more recently was producing the program for Bob Maumill takes over from Monday morning. The show will now go head to head with the ABC moving back to its original 8.30am start time.

Early this week, (01/09), Howard Stern marked his first year on SIRIUS Satellite Radio. And even though he is still bringing his show to a substantially smaller audience than he had on terrestrial radio, Sternâ€™s magnetism has attracted enough new subscribers to SIRIUS to have earned him $83 million dollars from a stock bonus.

SIRIUS recently reported over 6 million subscribers for its service, putting it in a position to breathe squarely down XM’s neck - which just announced it has 7.5 million subscribers. Considering this gap has substantially narrowed and quickly, Stern has to be considered part of the reason. SIRIUS had 3 million subscribers in December, 2005 and only 1 million in December, 2004. Think what you may about Stern â€“ he has always had admirers and detractors â€“ but, his move to SIRIUS has proven that he can multitask: do his own F.C.C.-less show and program two channels busting over with Stern-approved talent.

“It’s been a great year and the show is better than ever,” said Stern.

“We’ve delivered on the promise of satellite radio; I can do whatever I want and say whatever I want.”Having two dedicated Howard Stern channels makes it possible for SIRIUS to replay The Howard Stern Show all day and night, allowing fans to listen to the show any time. Howard 100 and Howard 101 feature original shows such as The Wrap Up Show, a daily recap of that morningâ€™s Howard Stern Show hosted by producer Gary Dellâ€™Abate and Jon Hein; The Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a controversial and funny afternoon talk show; The Scott Ferrall Show, a nightly talk show hosted by veteran sports radio personality Scott Ferrall; Jackieâ€™s Joke Hunt, a weekly comedy program hosted by former longtime Stern show member Jackie â€œThe Joke Manâ€ Martling; The Riley Martin Show, a weekly show about Martinâ€™s alien experience; Superfan Roundtable, a weekly show featuring Stern â€œsuperfansâ€ and appearances by the Wack Pack, and The Intern Show, on which the college-age interns reveal the behind the scenes details of working on The Howard Stern Show.

At SIRIUS, Stern even has his own news department, the “Howard 100 News Team” which reports on all things “Howard” all-the-time. You might think this is the epitome of ego-driven programming but for Stern fans, it is real news by a news department which does a very professional job - though, often with tongues in cheek.

In addition to The Howard Stern Show, Stern has created original programming for his two channels over the last year, such as The Bitter Half, a radio drama about Stern show wives and girlfriends, written and produced by Sam Simon, one of the original developers of The Simpsons.

Howard Stern and his channels were a hefty financial investment for SIRIUS â€“ beginning with the highly reported $500 million dollar/5-year deal for his services. With the additional $83 million he earned this week one thing is clear: the King of All Media has also proven himself to be a Jack of All Trades when it comes to content and programming.

Metropolitan commercial radio stations generated advertising revenue of $599.6 million in calendar year 2006, according to figures released today by peak industry body Commercial Radio Australia.Â The result was a 1.4 per cent increase compared with the $591.4 million generated in the 2005 calendar year.

â€œWhile there was good growth in Perth and Brisbane, the overall result was weighed down by the Sydney market, which continues to be adversely affected by the weaker New South Wales economy,â€ said chief executive officer Joan Warner.

Perth was the strongest market in 2006, up nearly 7 per cent in the 12 months ending December to $65 million, followed by Brisbane, which grew by 6 per cent to $91.8 million.Â Sydney stations attracted revenue of $216.0 million in 2006, a 5 per cent decline over 2005, while Melbourne was up 5 per cent to $170.2 million and Adelaide was up 6 per cent to $56.6 million.Â The data is compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the five major capital city markets.

Sydney was the only market to decline in the six months ending December 2006, with Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane showing solid growth.

â€œThe industry is also hopeful of securing a significant share of political advertising in 2007 with a state election slated for NSW, and a Federal Election likely before the end of the year,â€ she added.

Despite competition from newer entertainment choices, commercial radio continued to attract loyal audiences in 2006, with over 8.6 million Australians tuning in in metropolitan areas, representing an audience reach of 77 percent.Â The average time spent listening to commercial radio was 17 hours and 57 minutes each week, or two hours and 33 minutes per day.

Former long time 3mp presenter Steve Curtis has moved to Magic 1278. A 36 year veteran in the Radio and Television industry Curtis pulled the pin on MP in November only day’s before the PD and long time Curtis friend Peter Butler also quit.They were quickly followed by MP music director Peter Tarnawski who is now working overseas.

Over the next couple of weeks the pages navigationÂ link will migrate into the categories navigationÂ Â link and archives link all on the right handside. This process has begun with part of the January 2006 items now available via categories and archives.

There are five main categories with plans for at least three more.

Information will cover December 2005 through to December 2006 in the migrating process. This will also allow 99% of items to be found with a keyword search in our search box once migration is completed.

We are back on deck with daily updates and welcome your contribution as we head into 2007.

From next Monday (15 Jan) Channel 7’s Victoria Carthew will present the sport segmentÂ twice each morning, Monday to Friday on 4BC breakfast. Victoria will also become the regular fill in host for holidays etc .

Brisbane ABC staff have threatened further industrial action amid continuing upheaval over the relocation of the national broadcaster’s operations after a cancer scare.Â

The ABC’s ageing site at Toowong, in the city’s inner-west, was abandoned before Christmas after an independent panel of experts found the breast cancer rate there was up to 11 times higher than the general working community.

Twelve women who worked at the riverside Toowong office have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 11 years, eight in the newsroom.

Staff returned to work on December 27 at a temporary studio based at the Ten Network premises at Mount Coot-tha from where radio bulletins resumed on Wednesday.

But that did not stop about 40 angry staff meeting at a hotel in Toowong and passing a vote of no-confidence in the management, condemning it for failing to properly plan for the relocation and calling for more detailed daily updates

About 90 journalists, presenters and producers walked off the job in a snap strike in July over the breast cancer issue and media union state secretary David Waters said there may be further industrial action.

ABC Radio will resume broadcasting from Brisbane on Wednesday after its Queensland headquarters was abandoned due to breast cancer fears. ABC management ordered the closure of the building at inner-west Toowong on December 21 after an independent study found female employees had developed breast cancer at a rate of up to 11 times higher than the general working community.Twelve female employees have contracted breast cancer in the past 11 years, but the cause remains a mystery.On December 27, staff returned to work at a temporary studio based at the Network Ten studios at Mount Coot-tha, while some production staff worked out of Sydney.”We’ve had two presenters and a radio producer in Sydney and a television presenter and occasionally a TV producer down there as well,” ABC Queensland acting editor Don Lange said.ABC Queensland television news presenter Andrew Lofthouse was still in Sydney for the time being.

“Sometime towards the end of February, we are hoping to get him back on site,” Mr Lange said.

Some Brisbane-specific local radio content was also being produced at the ABC’s facilities on the Gold Coast, ABC Queensland manager Chris Wordsworth said.

“That will be the case for another few weeks and then we will be looking at an interim studio and production centre in Brisbane to get us through until the longer term arrangements are in place at the end of March,” he said.

Mr Wordsworth said some male staff were still working at Toowong.

“The broadband internet people are still at Toowong but we are just waiting for the technical fitout to be completed at the ABC newsroom up at Channel Ten.

“But that is not far off.”

Female staff from the broadband department had been redeployed into the publishing side of the online division and were now based at Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Kelvin Grove campus, he said.

Albany Harness Racing Club has introduced a new innovation to lift its profile. At the clubâ€™s first meeting for the new racing season run on Sunday 7th January, the club broadcast its races via its website. With support from Racing and Wagering Western Australia, Albany Harness Racing Club has set up its own internet radio station and will broadcast all its races in full from the course. In between races the club will relay TAB Racing Radio.

The club has taken on this innovation because of the tight scheduling of Racing Radio. The club has owners of horses that live all over the state and when timing overruns occur our clubâ€™s coverage is severely restricted. The fact that some races, or part of some races cannot be heard is of concern to owners and others who particularly want to hear the call, and can affect turnover. This is certainly a first for Western Australia and possibly Australia.

The Albany Harness Racing Club is now also supplying last lap replays for the harness.org.au results page as well as supplying a full audio replay and last lap reply via our own website.

Keep up with whatâ€™s happening in Albany on www.albanyharnessracing.com.au

The newest brand for GMG Radio has been launched by pop and rock legend Rod Stewart. 96.3 Rock Radio is the new name for Q96 and serves nearly one million adults in Paisley and Renfrewshire. The first song played was Revolution by The Beatles.The line-up will see Kieron Elliott on Breakfast, followed by Tom Russell and David “The Captain” Grant. Friday’s schedule sees Donald McLeod on air in the evening. Wild Willie and Ciaran O’Toole join the weekend line-up. The seventies hit band Nazareth joined hundreds of guests and clients as Rod Stewart became the first voice to be heard on the station saying â€œHi, this is Rod Stewart, I canâ€™t tell you how much pleasure it gives me to welcome you to Scotlandâ€™s first Classic Rock station 96.3 Rock Radio, youâ€™re in my heart, youâ€™re in my soul Scotland so letâ€™s rock!â€

The station will showcase a large mix of classic rock hits from the last 40 years, from artists such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Simple Minds, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, The Who and The Rolling Stones.

From launch the station will be supported by a significant marketing campaign of bus backs across the region as well as audio adbikes around Paisley and the prominent shopping areas of Glasgow. Full liveried taxis will also travel around the transmission area for the next twelve months.96.3 Rock Radioâ€™s Managing Director, Billy Anderson said: â€œThis is a very exciting day for GMG as a radio group, not only to be launching a new brand but to be bringing to Scotland its very own classic rock station. We will endeavour to provide an alternative listen whilst encompassing the key local news and information services for our listenersâ€.The station is also available on DAB Digital Radio and online at the new station website.

SIMON Mitchell has no illusions of grandeur about his new gig on radio. “Basically I’ll be filing CDs and cleaning the music office,” he laughs. . . “Making sure any artist starting with A has their CD in the A artist spot.” He’s downplaying it just a tad.He’s just been promoted to assistant music director at the Sunshine Coast radio station Hot 91FM. And as of January 15, he’ll be hosting the night show as well. Not bad for a Triple M street crew driver from Adelaide. Simon and his girlfriend, Zoe Noonan, moved up to Maroochydore in February last year. Simon had lined up a gig he knew a lot about - handing out cans of Coke as a promotional crew member for the station.While he’d always wanted to break into radio down south, the opportunities here didn’t present themselves.

“When I came up here I may have lied a bit about what I’d done at home, and they let me do dawns (the graveyard shift on air) and it went from there,” he laughs.

And when the music director went on holidays over Chrissie he was next in line.

“I push F1 and F2 a lot, that’s pretty much it,” he jokes.

“No, I’m really happy, it’s a nice feather to have in your cap.”

He’s well and truly adapted to the Queensland way of life - getting up at the crack of dawn to go surfing before work. “I couldn’t surf before I got up here,” he says, “and well, I still can’t really, I just paddle about for couple of hours, then come back in.”

Zoe is relief primary teaching along the coast and is also enjoying the seachange (she’s sporting a very impressive tan).

So what’s next for Simon?

“My plan is to stop making as many mistakes,” he laughs, “At the end of the day dead air isn’t a good thing.”

CANWEST Global Communications Corp and investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co have teamed up to bid up to $C2.1 billion ($2.3 billion) for specialty television group Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.With bids for Toronto-based Alliance expected to land next week, CanWest and Goldman had formed a partnership that would see Winnipeg, Manitoba-based CanWest purchase Alliance’s 13 specialty television channels, the Globe and Mail newspaper said, citing unnamed banking and media sources.CanWest, Canada’s biggest media company, was widely believed to be interested in Alliance and analysts said it would likely look at buying the company when Alliance went on the block late last month.However, at least one analyst has suggested that CanWest may look at Alliance only if it can unload its Channel 10 tV assets in Australia.CanWest said last month that it is exploring such a sale, though it has not announced a deal.Analysts have also said that if the company was to exit Australia, it would also likely sell its smaller presence in New Zealand, where it has mostly radio holdings.

AN emotional Johnny Young has broken his silence to angrily deny gossip magazine allegations that he condoned an under-age affair by pop star Debra Byrne when she was appearing on his Young Talent Time television series.New Idea alleged in a cover story on October 24 that the former host of the long-running television program allowed Byrne to participate in under-age sex with a 24-year-old crew member, and to get involved with alcohol and drugs.Young, who returns to work tomorrow as host of Perth radio station 6IX’s breakfast program, says he has already spent $20,000 on legal advice and is likely to sue New Idea over the allegations if enrolment numbers in February are down at his Johnny Young Talent Schools around the country.Speaking at his stylish Mt Pleasant apartment this week, surrounded by Logie awards and pictures of his family, Young spoke emotionally about the hurt the magazine article had caused him.

He said he had no warning that the article, which condemned him for doing nothing when an allegedly 12-year-old Byrne was supposedly having an affair with a Young Talent Time boom operator, was about to be published.

The television series, which fostered the careers of Kylie Minogue and Jane Scali, ran from 1971 to 1989.

Young has written to Kerry Stokes, whose company operates New Idea, to ask for a retraction.In the letter Young says: “The articles have hurt and damaged me enormously.

“The first one effectively accuses me of sexually abusing Debra Byrne when she was a child.

“The second article backs away from this, but both articles suggest that I knew she was having a sexual relationship when she was 12 or 13 with a Young Talent Time staff member and I did nothing to stop it.

“The clear suggestion is that I turned a blind eye to pedophilia. This is terribly damaging to me and has the capacity to completely destroy my reputation and career.'’

Young goes on in the letter to categorically deny the allegations made in the magazine article and points out that the allegations don’t agree with the facts in Byrne’s tell-all autobiography Not Quite Ripe, which was released in October.

Young was alerted to the New Idea story, which ran under the banner heading “Sex, drugs and Young Talent Time'’, by his daughter.

“I went and got a copy of New Idea and nearly fell off my chair,'’ Young said this week.

“What really shocked me though, when I read the story, was that there were direct quotes from Debra.

“There were three main ones: one that she started on Young Talent Time when she was 12; secondly that she was with somebody who worked on the program and that I should have known about it, and thirdly, that she was introduced to drugs and alcohol on Young Talent Time.'’Young said none of these points was true.

“She wasn’t 12 years old when she started the relationship with the guy. She says so in the book.

“She had another boyfriend when Young Talent Time started and she was 14 when Young Talent Time started.

“When she had this relationship, which she describes in the book, with this guy called Michael, she was nearly 16.

“I was in the process of having my own baby girl, Anna, but according to (choreographer) Maggie Burns, who had more to do with them than anybody else, she was a few months away from being 16 years old.'’

Young said the boom operator was replaced on Young Talent Time because a producer thought he was getting too friendly with Byrne and that Byrne had made it clear in her book that she had approval for the relationship from her parents.

Young insists he knew nothing about the relationship.

His first reaction to the magazine story was one of absolute anger and then fear about what the story would do to the careers of the people running his talent schools and what parents, who entrust their children into the care of the teachers at those schools, would think.

He was concerned about embarrassment to his family.

Young said that now, having read Byrne’s book, he had been able to put her comments into context.

“It’s a very sad book. Deb’s had some incredible tragedy in her younger life, being molested by her grandfather, the way her father treated her and her mother’s attitudes are horrific stuff for a youngster, but nothing to do with Young Talent Time,'’ he said.

Young said it was clear that Byrne didn’t like him.

“But she doesn’t make it clear in the book why she doesn’t like me,'’ he said.

“When asked by Kerri-Anne Kennerley on her television program `What’s your problem with Johnny Young?’, her answer was simply because `he’s a businessman’.

“She was also pretty heavy about the fact that I was critical of her smoking marijuana.

“Now, I smoked some marijuana in the ’60s, too, but if you’re 19, as Debra was when she started smoking marijuana and you’re going to England to make records with Cliff Richard, it’s not a very smart idea to have any kind of drugs in your life when you are dealing with people in life who have that kind of standard.

“We had a big argument about that.'’

Young says part of his falling out with Byrne was over songs he chose for her to record.

“I picked He’s A Rebel and in the book she says she hated it, but it was a No.1 hit record _ you can’t do better than that in this business.

“Secondly, with Ross Burton I produced her album, which was also a big hit, and there were two more hits off that album.

“As a consequence of that and the work she did on Young Talent Time, she got offered the opportunity to go to England and make records with Cliff Richard and to be managed by Olivia Newton-John’s management company, all organised by Kevin Lewis, who was our boss.

“It was an opportunity to die for.'’

Young said he was always conscious of a duty of care to the children working on Young Talent Time.

Other than Byrne, who was often dropped home by Maggie Burns because the young singer’s parents often chose not to pick her up, the children who performed on the program were picked up and dropped off by their parents.

“We had security people everywhere and we were very aware we were dealing with children,'’ Young said.

“Our duty of care was 100 per cent when those children were in our care, but those children were not in our care 24 hours a day.

“They were in our care for three to four hours a day after school and on Saturdays they were delivered by their parents to Channel 10 and they rehearsed and at 6.30pm we would do the show.'’

Since the New Idea article appeared, Young has received a number of letters of support from former Young Talent Time members.

Young said he believed the timing was now right for him to go public with his side of the story, though his daughters had told him to ignore the story and to rise above it.

He had also spent the last couple of months at end-of-year concerts and had been sounding out a number of people.

“I was very moved by the way people responded to me, particularly at a show we did on the Gold Coast, where we had 15,000 people offer their support,'’ he said.

“But I felt I wanted to do this story to point out the facts.

“I wanted to do one story where I could say `this is what’s happened to me without any care for 20 years of hard work - probably the most important thing I’ve done in my career - tarnished with lies’.

“Whether I sue them or not will be a business decision I’ll have to make depending on whether the kids re-enrol in the school and how my ratings go on the radio because people may not want to listen to me any more if they believe that crap.

“Somewhere along the line I had to do something.

“The feeling I have for Deb is just extreme sadness.

“The people like John Paul Young and others she crucifies in her book is not going to do her a lot of good for work in the future.'’Â Â

Former Adelaide radio talk king Jeremey Cordeaux has a concept for a new program he is interested in talking to the Television networks about. The program has a working title of ‘15 Minutes of Fame’ and Cordeaux feels he is sitting on a winner. He feels the concept could easily convert from TV to radio and possibly into a magazine. Using archival footage on people who graced us withÂ 15 minutes in the spotlight it would be pitted against current information or footage on where life has taken them since their moment of glory.

Megan Gale and current Bachelor of the Year Andy Lee have fuelled rumours they are an item after taking a week’s holiday together in the Victorian seaside town of Portsea.The pair were linked romantically several times during the Spring Racing Carnival, but neither would confirm the relationship then.Lee, 25, a Melbourne radio personality, confirmed the two had been relaxing at the glamorous beachside hotspot.But the Fox FM funnyman remained coy when asked yesterday about the nature of his relationship with the stylish 31 year-old model and Channel Nine star.“Look, we’re close friends and we’ve been seeing a bit of each other,” Lee said.“We were down at Portsea for a little bit. She was visiting me for a little while.“There’s nothing much more to say really,” he said, before adding, “It must be more of a situation where models are sponsoring fat, lazy Australians as some kind of Christmas charity appeal â€“ and I was lucky enough to get Megan as my sponsor.”Lee said he and Gale had known each other for a few years. Gale’s romantic life has been scrutinised in recent years after the break up of her four-year relationship with Italian model Marzio Canevarolo.Last October she said “the only person I’m interested in dating right now is me, and getting to know who I am”.Gale explained she was looking forward to some “me time

Rather than turkey and cranberry, itâ€™s been a Christmas of trucks and cabling for technical staff at 612 ABC Brisbane, whoâ€™ve been moving the station from the Toowong site to temporary premises at ABC Coast FM at Mermaid Beach.

All staff at the ABC at Toowong are in the process of moving offsite, after an investigation into incidences of breast cancer among ABC staff found that there is a higher instance of breast cancer than normal at the Toowong site.

612 ABC Brisbane has temporarily moved to ABC Coast FM offices on the Gold Coast to maintain local summer programming â€“ a move overseen by Local Radio Queensland Operations Coordinator (technical whiz), Robert â€˜Aussie Bobâ€™ Apolloni.

Itâ€™s been a big job for Aussie and other technical staff. â€œItâ€™s a huge task to move not only staffing, but also the technical part of it â€“ itâ€™s a massive undertaking,â€ he confirms. â€œThereâ€™s a lot of things in a radio station that people donâ€™t realise need to be moved, just so staff can operate equipment properly.

Itâ€™s a huge task to move not only staffing, but also the technical part of it â€“ itâ€™s a massive undertakingÂ

â€œThe idea is that we want to move computers and phones, which is your basic equipment,â€ Aussie explains. â€œThen weâ€™ll bring out the broadcast equipment, our editing system, our phone and computer networks, and then of course, our console, which allows us to use our microphones, our CD players and all the additional equipment we need to make a radio program.â€

Queenslandâ€™s Local Radio Manager, Mike McGowan, is coordinating the entire radio divisionâ€™s move from the Toowong site, and he agrees that the task is massive. â€œItâ€™s absolutely huge,â€ he says. â€œWeâ€™re talking about all of radio: Radio National, Triple J, NewsRadio, Rural, Sport, as well as Local Radio. That whole operation exists on connectivity and electronic equipment and to move all of it essentially three times - which is what weâ€™re looking at at the moment - is just a huge logistical job, and itâ€™s not just radio, itâ€™s the whole of the ABC here.â€

So far, 612â€™s move to the Gold Coast has only involved the Summer Breakfast program: presenter Tony Johnston and producer Anne Debert. According to Anne, thanks to the oft-promoted ABC shopping bags, the move itself was stress free. â€œWeâ€™ve brought our little ABC shopping bags and weâ€™ve got one bag full of prizes and Iâ€™ve got my contact book, got my tray, and the people here have been really lovely, really accommodating,â€ she smiles.

â€œA few little things behind the scenes havenâ€™t been a smooth as weâ€™re used to; for instance, in our production area, the producers [for 612 and ABC Coast FM] share a desk, so sometimes we hear their program, sometimes we hear our program, so sometimes itâ€™s a bit of a battle of the tuners â€“ and the volume knobs! But really itâ€™s all working out very well â€“ the coffee machineâ€™s here and the fridge!â€

According to Aussie, nothingâ€™s gone seriously wrong â€“ yet. For Anne, the technical side of the operation has gone reasonably smoothly. â€œFor me, the biggest technical hitch is printing things,â€ she admits with a wry smile.

â€œNew yearâ€™s day, I couldnâ€™t get anything to print, it was 3.30 or 4 in the morning. I felt like the person in the Castle when he was on the photocopy machine â€“ there were a few expletives, but thatâ€™s really been the biggest hiccup. Our technical people have done a great job.â€

An ABC Radio broadcast bus and a site hut have also been moved to the Gold Coast site to provide extra office space and recording facilities for other 612 staff as they return from holidays.

Producer Anne is steadily adjusting to the idea of leaving the Toowong site. â€œInitially, I was sad,â€ she reflects. â€œIt was my 20th year at the end of last year, and so I was a bit sad about it, but thatâ€™s probably my personality â€“ I find change a little bit difficult,â€ she laughs.

â€œI was sad as well because it meant weâ€™ll be splitting up. I know weâ€™ll all be together again one dayâ€¦ but now Iâ€™m loving being in this office and being one block from the beach. And parking! Parking is just a dream around here compared to Toowong.â€

Anneâ€™s not the only employee whoâ€™s feeling a bit reflective about her time in the Toowong office. â€œThose of us who have been at the site for a long time were probably hoping that, sometime over the next 4-5 years, we would relocate to a more modern facility,â€ comments Mike McGowan.

weâ€™re looking at a number of university campuses and other properties that have been put before us as optionsÂ

â€œUnfortunately though, this move has kind of just descended upon us and a lot of employees who have been with us a long time are not leaving under their own terms; I guess thatâ€™s what it is… so there is a bit of an emotional attachment to the move in that sense, I suppose.â€

612 has two more moves in the near future â€“ one of which is very close to the current site. â€œWeâ€™ve got a property in Lissner Street in Toowong for the Radio Division and itâ€™s a workable property in the sense of getting us and keeping us on the air, so weâ€™re able to operate from there until a permanent home is found,â€ says Mike.

â€œIn the meantime, the Gold Coast operation has a finite timeline â€“ we need to wrap that up by the end of the month - and at this stage, weâ€™re looking at a number of university campuses and other properties that have been put before us as options to move the radio division there while the Lissner Street property is being properly fitted out.â€

As we have done in the past every week we randomly pickÂ a station of the week. This week it is Perth’s 96FM. We think the 96FM website is pretty flash, no pun intended. Click the logo and drop by 96FM.

3NE’s Paul Konik will talk with Wayne Mac, author of Don’t Touch That Dial, this Friday morning on at around 7.45am. If you have not yet landed your own copy of the book then drop by Wayne’s website where you can purchase a copy online www.waynemac.com

2DAY FM APD Jason Walkerden is moving to the UK. Jason has landed aÂ program director role withÂ GCAP Network stations Ocean FM & Power FM based in Southhampton. Well done Jason who has come a long way from his days back West.

Adelaide Talk station FiveaaÂ gave breakfast a different spin this week withÂ regularÂ funster Jon Blake and PD Nic Nolan getting behind the mic together for a couple of hours. Other surprises at Fiveaa and great to hear, Adrian Middeldorp in the chair albeit for a one off shift.

Village Roadshow says this year’s profits will likely be higher than previously expected.The company which distributes film, owns a majority stake of radio group Austereo, and operates theme parks across the country now sees full year profit coming in at $36 million.The new estimate is $9 million higher than an earlier forecast of $27 million.The company attributes the improved profit outlook to an accounting change, which has effectively reduced its losses on interest rate derivatives held by the company.

Shares of Village Roadshow fell 4 cents to finish at $3.06 on Wednesday

Brisbane’s 882 4BH yesterday clocked up 75 years of broadcasting. The AM station now part of the Southern Cross stable first went to air on January 2 1932. The station was originally owned by J B Chandler, of Chandler Stores. Chandler had launched 4BC two years earlier in 1930 so it is now rather fitting that some 75 years latter the two are sister stations.

TALK about Opportunity. Three years after releasing his major-label debut, former rugby player turned smouldering troubadour Pete Murray has produced the most played song on Australian radio in 2006.Opportunity, the third single from Murray’s second album, See The Sun, beat hits from Nickelback, Santana and James Blunt to take the title.Radio airplay helps drive sales and Murray’s continued success on commercial radio has helped him sell more than 700,000 copies of his first two albums in Australia.

Australian acts held half the slots in the year’s airplay top 10.

Shannon Noll had two tracks and Eskimo Joe and Youth Group one each. Noll also had a third track, Lift, at No. 22.

Murray had three other tracks in the top 100 for the year: Better Days at 19, Class A at 70 and George’s Helper at 90.

The singer-songwriter spent much of 2006 touring Europe, Russia and Britain. He recently returned from a British tour with Richard Ashcroft, former frontman of the Verve.

Of the top 100 acts on Australian radio, 34 were by local performers.

Some of the international acts to receive a stamp of approval from Australian radio programmers were English rockers Coldplay, Californian quartet the Red Hot Chili Peppers, British indie-rockers Snow Patrol, American popster Pink and former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.

The 2005 Australian Idol winner, Kate DeAraugo, could only muster a slot at No. 55.

DeAraugo, Noll and former contestant Ricki-Lee (who came in at 92 with Sunshine) were the only former Idol-related performers to make the chart.

Bernard Fanning’s solo material featured prominently. The ARIA award-winning Powderfinger frontman scored, with Wish You Well and Songbird coming in at 13 and 16 respectively.

Precocious Queensland twins the Veronicas had three entries on the chart, as did New Zealand trio Evermore, now based in Sydney.

There were some surprises. Melbourne rockers Jet managed only a disappointing No. 64 with their comeback single Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Robbie Williams had three entries in the upper levels of the chart, yet all came from his 2005 album Intensive Care, not last year’s album, Rudebox.

Former Triple MÂ and Gold 1043 announcer Ewan J Dixon is currently looking to take that next step in his career. “Ewan J Dixon, 27 year veteranÂ currently in Sydney. Seeking a new radio challenge, contact on 0417 143426 or (02) 9673 4163 or email metromedia@mail.com”

Bruno Bouchet commences next week with the producing team at ARN Brisbane. . He will be assisting Chris Hague to produce the 973FM breakfast show. Bruno will also work on producing Laurel, Gary & Mark’s breakfast show at Classic Hits 4KQ.Â Brenden Wood has departed for SydneyÂ to produce Sammy Power’s breakfast show atÂ sister station, MIX 106.5.